RaGa provides fodder for trolls

Rahul Gandhi has regularly been targeted by internet trolls for clumsy speeches, hilarious pictures and for showing those dimples at funerals and such other occasions which call for more decorum from the Vice-President of the country’s oldest party. Gandhi, who is yet to prove his mettle,has been evolving as an orator over the past few months but the internet just can’t stop mocking him for goofiness. These days, the Nehru-Gandhi scion is in the news for the alliance between his party and the Samajwadi Party (SP) of Akhilesh Yadav.

After much speculation, when the Congress-SP alliance for the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh was finally sealed, both leaders held a joint press conference in Lucknow followed by a road show. During the press conference, when a journalist stood up to ask a question and introduced himself as being from Uttar Pradesh’s “Number 1” news channel, Gandhi forgot the question and launched on a hilarious monologue.

A video of the incident has gone viral and is leading to much amusement. In the video, the journalist from the “Number 1” channel asked both leaders what the alliance has in store for the minority communities in the state. Instead of replying to the question, Gandhi said that, just as the journalist was calling his channel numero uno, Narendra Modi too called himself Number 1 and added that the difference between the two was that the journalist would be fine with there being a Number 2 or 3 but for the PM, there was no Number 2.

Gandhi was so engrossed in his own reply that he forgot the question and even admitted this. While he seemed to be busy enjoying his own sense of humour, Akhilesh looked pretty embarrassed but finally laughed at his political partner’s not so funny joke. The video, uploaded on Facebook,has been viewed more than 22 lakh times.

The video clip is not all that’s making netizens laugh. There’s a picture too – showing Gandhi trying to avoid a tangle of electricity cables by ducking during theroad show. The photo gave social media two targets to troll – the electricity crisis in Uttar Pradesh and Gandhi himself.

Now, it is predicted, the Prime Minister is bound to take a dig at Gandhi in his next speech. Earlier, Modi had goodhumouredly referred to the fact that the Congress leader is finally learning the art of oratory.

Views on News, unique magazine that monitors and takes a critical look at the challenging, competitive world of Indian and global media every fortnight; and Akbari, a weekly newspaper in Hindi and Urdu.